Tuesday top news

A national study of charter schools conducted by Stanford University shows academic performance about the same as other public schools. However, Arkansas charter schools seem to outperform the national trends.

The FBI is investigating a hoax email that reported a non-existent tornado in northwest Arkansas Friday evening. The report made it to the air on at least one television station.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has joined attorneys general from 24 other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court free speech decision that struck down a law against the depiction of animal cruelty.

Arkansas officials say they expect to hire about 400 temporary workers using stimulus money, but are warning applicants the jobs won’t be there when the federal funds run out.

Stimulus money is on the way to Arkansas fish farmers. Fifty million dollars was just approved nationally for aquaculture farmers.  Arkansas will see about 7 million of that and some farmers say it will keep their business afloat.

The Arkansas National Guard’s 875th Engineer Battalion was alerted over the weekend to prepare for an overseas deployment.

Tom Cox, A boat shop owner who organized a “tea party” protest in Little Rock, says he’s running for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln. Nationally, the tea parties are a product of Rev. Don Wildmon’s American Family Association of Tupelo, Ms.

There is plenty of violent crime in the capitol city. For the second time in three days, a house in SWLR has been set fire by someone who tossed a Molotov cocktail. A mother and six children escaped in the latest. A police car was shot at last night by a passing car.

Fitch Ratings reports Tyson Foods is one of a few large agri-based companies positioned to best withstand “volatility” caused by export bans resulting from the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak and other health-related concerns.

A Nashville woman claims her managers at Howard County Memorial Hospital falsely accused her of theft to hide that she was actually being fired because illness was affecting her ability to work.

Amtrak’s Texas Eagle will resume its scheduled stop in Hope.

Free-roaming cats would have to be sterilized and microchipped to continue their wandering, under an ordinance Little Rock directors are scheduled to consider.

Filed under: Arkansas

Monday headlines

Governor Beebe says that, if Arkansas wants to make the big leagues, it must take into consideration its economic development needs while it is building its education system.

Lawmakers have been told that the state is putting its residents and economy at risk by failing to adopt a centralized system for flood-levee oversight.

Through May, the state collected nearly $2 billion in sales tax revenue for the current fiscal year, the finance office reported — $3.2 million below the same point last year and $28 million, or 1.4, percent below forecast. Some cities are hard hit because of a new state law allocating revenue to the point of delivery rather than the point of sale.

A recent legislative audit of the state crime lab shows that some cases receive priority without documentation as to the reason. Questions arose after the case of a slain television anchor and the lab promises to keep more complete records.

Highway projects in Southeast Arkansas are to be somewhat unaffected — for now — by recent news of the federal highway fund being at risk of running dry.

Analog television is no more. The switchover to digital channels was completed over the weekend.

Moody’s Economy.com lists Texarkana as one of the metropolitan areas to exit the recession early.

Tyson Foods must pay the maximum fine for violating regulations that led to the death of a Texarkana rendering-plant worker in 2003. Tyson was ordered in federal court to pay the $500,000 fine and serve a year probation.

Affiliated Foods Southwest has eliminated nearly 90% of its workforce, reducing its employee base to fewer than 60.

A federal grant received by the Missouri Department of Transportation will help the Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad recover losses from flood damage in 2008.

Byron Phillips says he resigned as mayor of Marmaduke after being told that he was the target of a criminal investigation. But neither he nor the Arkansas State Police nor the local prosecutor would disclose the nature of the investigation.

Filed under: Arkansas